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Category: Studies

It’s a brand new month which means brand new beginnings! This year I want to start keeping track of my language goals, what I set out to do and what I am actually accomplishing. I figured what better way than by joining in on Clear The List which is hosted by Kris Broholm, Angel Pretot, Shannon of Eurolinguiste, and Lindsay Does Languages! This is where I’ll be discussing what I want to accomplish in a given month and then looking back to see how much of it I actually got done.

Hey everyone! Okay, so I know I disappeared for several months but SO much happened in that time. Between an immense level of stress at work and some personal things that I won’t bore you with, I was simply overwhelmed by it all. I know it happens to all of us and so I am not going to beat myself up for not posting in awhile. On the bright side, even though I was not posting, I was still studying when ever I got the chance, although I have made a few alterations to my initial plans at the start of the year. After January I quickly realized that I was taking on too much given the other things going on in my life at the time.

I’ve decided for the time being until things ease up a bit more that I am going to focus primarily on my one true love: Korean. Some days I have more time to study and others I only have 20 minutes but one thing I do know is that I always want to spend it studying Korean, one way or another. I mentioned to my boyfriend the other day that Korean was the language of my heart…and he laughed…but I was 100% serious. Having studied several languages in my life, I feel connected to them all in some way and obviously I love them but there is this undeniable pull to Korean that I felt the moment I heard it 10 or so years ago. If I were to sum it up…Korean is my language soulmate. That is incredibly cheesy isn’t it???! Am I the only one that feels this way or are others so attached to a particular language?

That being said…Korean is HARD. Studying Korean on my own is HARD. Not having anyone to share this journey with is HARD. I’m still at such a beginner level and the knowledge I do have is all over the place sometimes. Like the fact that I can name a plethora of animals but have difficulty recalling how to say bathroom! I guess “Where is the zebra” will have to do in that situation…I sometimes feel so stagnant in my language growth even though when I step back I can see that even in these past few months I have picked up a lot more than I knew before. Whether it be understanding a line in a song or a text that my friend sends me, I get super giddy just knowing that at one point I didn’t know those words at all. I don’t want to dwell on the negative or how slow the process seems to be going, rather I want to celebrate all those small victories.

Goals for June

Listening:

This is the one goal I never have an issue with because I tend to always have a show, a youtube video, or music playing. But I am hoping to include more Glossika and KoreanClass101 and Talk to me in Korean podcasts.

Reading:

One thing I am doing to improve the speed of my reading is listening to some Korean songs with the lyrics on Youtube and trying to read along. This also has been helping my pronunciation which is always a bonus.

I will also be using some written dialogues as well as a very short children’s book I will be working my way through.

Writting:

I started a small daily journal where I write down 3 or 4 sentences, no matter how small or simple they are. I hope to make it a set routine.

I’ve been going through the first 50 Glossika sentences and doing dictations with them. I’ve been taking about 10 sentences at a time, I listen to the sentence and write it down without looking at the written version and then correct myself after and note the mistakes I’m making and then repeat the process until I spell all the 10 sentences correctly before moving on. I’m finding this is a great way for me personally to utilize Glossika.

Another goal is to write more in Korean to my friends, I’ll interject words or small phrases into our conversations but I want to start sending more complete sentences.

Speaking:

This one is the hardest for me to keep up with since I don’t get as many opportunities to speak to other speakers. I do have to admit that I speak to myself a lot of in Korean, especially when practicing pronunciation. My main goal is to find more situations where I can speak Korean. A new Korean restaurant opened near by and I managed to say a few phrases to the owner, so I hope I can go back and speak some more even if it just small phrases.

Okay, that is all of the upcoming month! I will sprinkle in more study materials in between such as Memrise and a couple textbook lessons but I want to make sure to keep in open for whatever calls to me during the month. I hope you all have a successful month of language learning ahead!

I’m working on several goals and study plans that I want to kick into gear this upcoming year, but I was hoping to get a good bit done before then as well because why wait? This hasn’t really gone as planned unfortunately. I am currently in the process of moving and I have spent the majority of my time outside work, packing and sorting out utilities and paper work. When I’ve been able to catch a small break I’ve been too tired to properly study. I have gotten in small bits here and there:

Korean

Watched about 3 episodes of 맘마미아 (Mamma Mia) which I have been loving.

Finished lesson 5 in Module 1 of the Yonsei University online course

Reviewed the 5 lessons in Module 1

Several minutes of vocabulary review

French

Did 10 Duolingo skill modules

Yup, that’s all I have been able to do this week. I’ve been trying to squeeze in bits of studying in any way I can. This week that has meant watching an episode of 맘마미아 before bed when I am too tired to look at a book, taking my flashcards with me to work and reviewing them if I get a break, and doing quick Duolingo lessons on the go while in the car (not driving of course!). I am proud of myself for not letting this hectic week become an excuse for not studying at all but am hoping by next week I will be more settled down and can make up for time lost. I’ll be posting my study goals for the new year sometime later this month.

I’m off to pack some more!

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Welcome!

Hey everyone!
I have always had a passion for learning languages, but it is often too easy to feel discouraged and unmotivated when you are doing it on your own. I wanted to create this space as a way to chronicle my journey and as a means to look back and see how far I have come. This is by no means a teach all to learning languages but rather a look at my process, however flawed it may be at times. I hope you will join me on this journey as I learn new things and make mistakes! Feel free to share your stories and tips with me as well!